Resting Heart Rate & Your Health

By Fitbit Staff

Your heart has a big job to do! With every beat, it pumps oxygen-rich blood throughout your body. Count up those beats in one minute, and you’ll get a sense of just how many the task takes. Generally, the fewer beats your heart makes during periods when you’re awake and relaxed, the better. In other words, the stronger, more efficient the pump, the lower your resting heart rate (RHR).

Check out this infographic to learn why it’s a good idea to keep track of your RHR and what your personal RHR trends can reveal about your overall health. And discover what you can do to improve your RHR over time.

This article is not intended to substitute for informed medical advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or condition. Always check with your doctor before changing your diet, altering your sleep habits, taking supplements, or starting a new fitness routine.

Hi. That’s odd. Anytime you sync, our system should transfer all recorded activity data to your Fitbit account. You can try restarting your tracker. Also, please make sure your app (iOS/Android) and firmware is updated to the latest versions. If you need more help, please reach out to us via our other support channels.

My RHR at night during the sleeping hours is average 43 resting bpm.
I am on sleep Apnea machine to avoid snoring .
My age 69 yrs and I weigh 102 kgs.
I am on medication against high blood pressure and the BP reading is on border line .
My question to you is 43 RHR is normal or not .

Hi Rashid! We recommend consulting a medical professional regarding your question about resting heart rate to get the best advice and info on this. For any Fitbit related inquires, feel free to ask us. We’d love to help!

You are a nurse and 43 doesn’t sound normal to you? Did you read about asymptomatic bradycardia and how fitness progress decreases your HR?!?
My resting HR is 40s when I sleep too. Because I work out every day. It’s a healthy variance ( with some) this person above should see his physician because we aren’t aware of other health issues he may have or if he is on beta blockers

Normal heart rate is 60-100 beats per minute. Some of the medication used for blood pressure regulation also slows your heart rate. While you are resting this heart rate may be fine however if you find yourself dizzy, blacking out, having visual changes or any other concern then definitely talk to your doctor

DITCH your scale and invest in a cloth tape measure… BMI is a lie and has NOTHING to do with health… The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and healthcare organizations use BMI to assess individuals because it is inexpensive and easy to calculate, not because it is the most effective method to predict true body composition or health risks.

Body builders at the peak of their career are morbidly obese… Total body mass includes (BMI) both fat and muscle. Each of these tissue types has a different effect on the metabolism. Traditional criteria for obesity and obesity-associated health risks are calculated using the body mass index (BMI). These guidelines are faulty and wildly inaccurate. BMI is calculated from a person’s height and weight, defined as mass in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. In no way does BMI calculate a person’s body fat directly.

Imagine a man who is 5-foot-9 and weighs 260 pounds. At that height and weight, the man would have a BMI greater than 40, placing him in the third and most severe tier of obesity. What the BMI doesn’t tell you is that this man could be a professional bodybuilder on stage at the Olympia. He has low body fat and has a lean mass percentage bigger than you or I could even imagine.

This BMI error doesn’t occur only in professional bodybuilders. Well-muscled people are often given higher BMIs and the subsequent “medical” diagnosis of being overweight or obese.

Diagnosing a person as obese or overweight should come from the percentage of fat mass and muscle mass a person has. It’s a much more accurate and effective way to measure health risk.

Thank U Reverend! I was wondering how the heart rate correlates with BMI. Now I know. It doesn’t. When in my 50’s and a resting heart rate of 50 when i gave blood, calculated by a nurse, I was surveyed with others for our BMI. To do that, as I recall, they took calipers and grabbed the fat around my waist and measured it. I was disappointed in the results but don’t know what they were. Further, Fitbit remarked about knowledge of BMI was useful but I’ve seen nothing and know of nothing that these units can provide relative to BMI. Am i rong?

BMI is a simple measure but not an accurate measure of fitness. Body builders with very low body fat would all be overweight by this measure. But a more complex measure is too much for most consumers of this kind of information

Thanks for asking. In order to expand the heart rate graph, tap on the arrows icon in the top right to expand the graph view. You can also rotate your phone to view the graph in landscape view. Let us know if you have any other questions!

I am 57 years old have just purchased my second Fitbit. My first purchase was the Fitbit One because it was voted the best by Which. I have now upgraded to the Fitbit Charge 2 because I wanted the heart rate thingummy. I can tell tell you I’m so happy with my purchase!

It was because of Fitbit and a Mayor’s race that I started running again. Not only have I lost over a stone (no dieting involved), but my BP has dropped and so has my resting heart rate.

Hi Eileen! If you have a Blaze, Surge, or Charge 2 you can track mileage via GPS exercise tracking. However, our other Fitbit trackers are only optimized for walking, running, and general lifestyle activities, but are not recommended for cycling.

If you have one of our other trackers (Zip, One, Charge, Charge HR, Alta, Flex), you can manually log your bike ride on your Fitbit dashboard to see estimated stats and capture it in your exercise history. For more information see How do I manually log or record an activity?.

I log my bike rides with “Road Bike” app, the elapsed time and calories eventually sync with the fitbit app. It may take a short while to sync but it does on my iphone.
The Charge2 shows heart rate for the whole activity. A suggestion to FitBit, it would be great if the heart rate was displayed by the time, That way I could graph my ride and heart rate….

My resting heart rate vary from 51 to 55. I runs for almost 15-20 mins daily and still a bit over weight (age 39, 190 lb) but with the rate it seems I am very active or healthy. Is this right interpretation ?

Thanks for asking, Vishal! For help with answering your question, we recommend contacting your general physician or another medical professional for expert advice. Keep up your daily runs and we wish you the best in reaching your health and fitness goals!

I have a Charge which I have been using for approx 6 months. I have to recharge it every night and yesterday it did not even for last the day. The instructions indicate it should go for up to 7 days without charging. Do you have any suggestions? Anne

I just purchased my Fitbit charger 2. I absolutely love it. I have severe back problems, but it want to get in shape! This is holding me accountable! My sleep is erratic. I have lots to work with! Thank you!

I’m inspired…Keeping it moving …Can you imagine that…Your just walking doing your THANG and boom you’ve been awarded for walking these many miles…Some say it’s not accurate but…sooo what – it’s still so much fun and POSITIVE!!
FB Family join in!!
Remember:
We are not in competition with EACH other but an inspiration UNTO each other…
This is the Lord’s temple…In the natural it’s (Fitbit) your walking buddy when nobody wanna get out there with Ya…In spirit you look at your watch and say…Thank you Lord for giving me health and strength to take~~BE~able to take another step ??Hallelujah!
??‍♀️?????‍♀️????‍♀️?
Keeping it MOVING✌?️❤️
#Fitbit

I FIGURE SKATE 3 HOURS PER WEEK, working with a coach. My heart rate varies but but lately my coach has had my legs alternate pushing with no rest time and going very fast. I’m working toward skate dancing. I sense no out of breath condition.

I got my charge 2 a week ago. It was a bit random, I was looking for a chest HR monitor and didn’t have any. They told me about the charge 2 and I got one. I am quite happy with it. Just back to exercising and I have seen dramatic improvements in resting HR (steady down 7 bpm in a week), as well as the estimation of my VO2 Max (went from average to good). The device is quite useful as a tracker and motivator if you want to get back in shape.

What is the recommendation for minutes in cardio phase per day? And is peak zone to be avoided meaning its too high of a zone for your heart? what is the percentage of heat rate in peak zone? or how many minutes is recommended to be in peak zone per workout? a bit confused on the peak zone. Please explain. Thanks1

Hi, just got my fist fit bit a change 2. The first day it recorded 5,000 steps and I really didn’t walk that much at all. It also seems to record movement of just my wrist as steps. Is this how it works normally?

Hi Phyllis, congrats on your new Charge 2! You may be surprised by how many steps your tracker racks up throughout the day, but if you think it is inaccurate, you can check out this article about Fitbit tracker accuracy. Hope this helps!

I am a man of 66 and had a tripple bypass 5 years ago I am still very active as a builder and love tramping. I do at least 15000 – 18000 steps per day when I work. My RHR is 43 beats; when I work it does increase to 90-110 but within seconds it does come down to my normal rate of 48- 55. Will you say that is normal or should I discuss this with my GP. I am a proud owner of a Charge 2 Fitbit.

I have a Fitbit charge and I wear it every day, love it as it motivates me to walk more. My only issue is I often catch the clasp on things and the band opens and have nearly lost it a number of times. Also if someone can invent a cover for the Fitbit that looks like a bracelet that you could wear out with a nice outfit, they would make a fortune.

Hi!
I think there are nice silver bands you can buy.
Also- my granddaughter also is having trouble with her strap coming loose. It’s only 3 weeks old and already won’t stay together. That should be looked into as a malfunction.

Hi guys I would like to be able to read the heart rate leaflet above but even while wearing glasses the print is too small. Can you please do something to make it readable. Information should be accessible for all. Thanks

At work I am not allowed to wear jewelry, so I put my Charge2 in my pocket, This tends to be read as bicycling, even though it counts my steps. I would hate to damage it by keeping it in my pocket , ie hitting it on things. If I got a ZIP, would I have to change my Bluetooth pairing every day, or would the ZIP remember the info and download it later. I am also waiting on the ARIA scale to arrive and am wondering how can I keep all these synced without pairing constantly. Thank you. Lost 10lbs so far thanks to fitbit monitoring calories.

I purchased Fitbit charge 2 few weeks ago. I use Fitbit Aps for iOS. Tracker and aps work very effectively during the exercise and daily activities. Battery is lasting for 5 days after the charge. Tracking my fitness indicators made easy by Fitbit charge 2.

Hi Linda! Fitbit trackers that count floors have an altimeter sensor that can detect when you’re going up or down in elevation. Your tracker registers one floor when you climb about ten feet at one time. If you feel your Fitbit tracker is not counting floors correctly, try restarting your tracker. If you need more help, please feel free to contact us via our other support channels so we can take a closer look.

I am a 63 year old female. In reading your rhr bmi chart. My resting hr is 72. If I am reading the chart correctly I’m in the <18.75 range which says underweight. I am sure that isn't correct as my weight is 132 and I am 5'3". I suspect I'm not understanding how to read your chart. Please advise on reading the chart. This is your bmi, correct!

I am very disappointed with my new Blaze. It is extremely innacurate at detecting heart rate at frequencies above 130. At those rates it registers in the 80s or lower. I’ve tried wearing it tighter, looser, higher or lower on the wrist but it still misses the peak heart rates.

Hi
I am a 72 year old male, my weight is 90kg and my height is 194cm. According to the Tanita body composition analyser my body fat is 7.8%. My resting heart rate is generally between 46 to 49.
I attend the gym 3 times per week for 2 hours each session, 1 hour of vigorous cardio interval training and 1 hour of weights. I generally average 20000 steps per.
I have always been physically active and am trying to get a “six pack” one more time to win a bet with a friend of mine.
Is this possible.

Have had my new Fitbit Charge 2 for several weeks. Had zero problems downloading Fitbit 2 app to my Kindle Fire HDX tablet. I’ve been through one ten hour heart ablation and stent placement procedure. Ergo, I’ll be wearing my tracker every day. It’s extremely accurate. Now, if it could just give me my BP and glucose number. And thank you Fitbit for sending me the weekly data summaries. Very impressive.

Hi, I’m a 34 y old woman I’m not that sporty and I have a BMI of 28,4. My RHR is always between 50-60, on day’s that I took more steps or when sick it elevates to 60-68, but never higher. When taking a walk or doing exercises I never get over 111bpm. Is that normal, because I don’t seem to burn much fat like that.

Hi, please i need to find out why my fitbit blaze records calories of upto 364 while i have not straped it on in the mornings. If i dnt wear it, it sits on the desk and starts recording calories even when it has not been worn
Why?

No where can I find how Fitbit calculates resting heart rate. Many times I’ve seen my fitbit register heart rate much slower than what is logged as my resting heart rate. Please explain how Fitbit calculates Resting Heart Rate.

Heart is the most important part of our body and we have to do many things to maintain our heart health. Sometimes our effort works and sometimes not. If you really want to maintain your heart health eat a balance diet with plenty of high fiber foods, do some exercise and try to be happy. Actually I have found a website in which I have read about what is healthy heart rate and according to me it is very important thing to know if we want to maintain our heart health.

My Fitbit charge 2 does not consistently record exercise done for 10 minutes or more. I’ve reset it. Still not working. It’s frustrating to not have this info. Yesterday I had over 25 minutes of peak and it showed in the heart rate feature but not the days of exercise.

I’m 25 and my resting heart rate is 70. (My charge 2 says), only worked out like 2 times a week, now I’m doing 4 times a week with 20 mins cardio and 30 mins weight and 13000 steps a day. Is 70 RHR BPm very bad or should I try to bring it lower lower lower. Thanks you.

I feel like I’m cheating. I got 18.000 steps yesterday from doing only a 30 minutes workout and shopping guide for 4 hours and maybe 2 hours house cleaning. Didn’t feel too active, but somehow go lots of steps. I wear my fitbit on my left wrist. I’m right handed. Is there something wrong with my fitbit?

Will the bangle for the Alta fit the new Alta? Can you trade in my previous Alta toward the new Alta? Mine is only 8mo and have the new bangle. Would like to have the new Alta with the new features. Had the one with heart rate previously, also tracking sleep and I really miss it. Got the Alta because it was smaller and nicer with the bangle.

BPM levels or range that is considered good seems to vary with each medical school of thoughts.

BBC has a TV series on medical educational insights for health issues. It’s called :- Trust Me I’m A Doctor.
In Series 4 Ep.2 on topic of Strokes – they highlight the signs before a stroke (TIA) can occur. They use the FACT steps to act on identifying onset of a stroke.
Out of 5 signs they highlight is that of BPM. They say that normal range should be 60-100 BPM. Anyone with onset of BPM below or over this range should get medical advise to investigate.

I just got Charge2
Before getting it I know that my BPM can be as low as 38 & average 45-50BPM. By counting pulse & on BP machine. My BP is in normal range 120-130/70-80.
My weight is 54.1kg, Height is 1.60m, BMI is 21.1 kg/m2. I’m within the ideal Weight range :- 47.4-58.6 kg.

I had consulted doctors on why my BPM could be so low. Doctors tell be like you people at Fitbit that I’m very fit & active.

This is far from the truth. I told them I hardly exercise & that I had a TIA in 2003. Right half of my body, arms & legs had lost any sense of strength / feeling. It lasted for few minute. Few hours later I was normal again.. At that point in time I didn’t realise it was TIA until I mentioned it to my doctor in 2005.

I have a Charge 2. Got it as a Christmas gift. I have now downloaded my 4th app. Each download lasts less time. I have a Samsung S4, 5.0.1 operating system, use Chrome and really need to figure out what is to blame. Support had me dump cache but I always keep my cache deleted. Any other instances of this issue?
So sorry but I had to give the app a very low rating.
Thank you…

I had the flex and learned from it. I decided that it was all math and I could do math! I gave my son my flex and got a charge 2. I love it! I have been morbidly obese most of my life and at 52 started my journey. January 1st 2017 and to date have lost 33 pounds! I am now working on a blog to record my journey and try to help others with tips and ideas.

I weighed 137 kilos and bought my fit bit to track steps … thought it was faulty because my pulse was going below 50 … well it wasn’t and I now have a pacemaker and apnia machine … now I set it to 7000 steps whilst recovering and if I can’t get there at the end of the day I get on exercise bike and make up the difference !!
On way down now 134
Many thanks to the inventor xxxx

My cardio fitness score is 23 and I can’t figure out why. I’ve had my charge 2 since December and I had a “very good” score for about a week and now it’s been 23 or 24 ever since. I am not over weight and I exercise on average 4 times per week. What gives?

I had back surgery micro lumbar discectomy 2 levels and I’m just starting with the Fitbit to get me more active. Any advice on how to start up since I have surgery I’m trying to get to do more walking any suggestions with somebody who’s had a medical issue I
on how to start off your calculations in order to build more strength. At this point I can’t really do an exercise routine I need to do more walking.

Can the fit bit track when your heart rate falls below 50? if so can it buzz like it does when you set it for an alarm? I want my fit bit to buzz when my heart rate falls low. This would wake me up and alert me to start breathing.

Hello, I am 58 years old man and my fitbit blaze, when I walking show my heard rate 130, after few second 100, after 136 etc….
After on my page on fitbit.com show results
different from the figures on the tablet.
Please help me and answer
What could be the reason for such data jumps? Its normal?

Hello, I am 58 years old man and my fitbit blaze, when I walking show my heard rate 130, after few second 100, after 136 etc….
After on my page on fitbit.com show results
different from the figures on the tablet.
Please help me and answer
What could be the reason for such data jumps? Its normal?

We do monitor the heart bit of some of our colleagues while the rest at work. It is highly interesting to see that depending on their workload. I think you all need to look at this for you. You’ll see a big change in your heart bit rate.

Sorry but my above comment was not taken properly. Here is the comment again:
We do monitor the heart bit of some of our colleagues while they rest at work. It is highly interesting to see that depending on their workload, their heart bit is changing. I think you all need to look at this for you. You’ll see a big change in your heart bit rate depending on stress levels and it is not when you are the most stressed you get the higher heart bit. The highest heart bit we monitored is when someone forgot to go and get his son from school and the school called. 😉

for me the number one reason I bought a fitbit with the ability to track heart rate is to monitor if I go in to overtraining. My hobby is powerlifting, and this tells me when I for sure have to do a deload (light weights for a week) cycle

How accurate is the HR on my Fitbit HR? I ask because my heart rate is from one extreme (70) to the other (131) within in a few seconds. I do have an extremely stressful job, but this seems to happen when i am just at my desk without any physical activity at all?

When I go on a 30 min run my Fitbit is telling me I am running at peak and at 176 bpm. When I run I am able to hold a conversation etc and don’t feel I am over doing it. I am a 41 year old woman and fairly active. I am healthy and don’t smoke. Is it possible to customise the heart rate setting, should I and how do I?

I noticed when I drink alcohol (up to two glasses of red wine) my resting heart rate for the evening is about 8-10 higher. And my sleep pattern is off. Deep sleep time is less than 1 hour. This actually is convincing me that possible I shouldn’t drink alcohol. By the way, I drink a lot of water daily.

I have bought the fitbit with the heart monitor more than happy I am a 57 year old male on blood pressure tablets.
Three years ago when I first started rowing my RHR was 73 now it’s down to 55 my blood pressure has also came down,live my Fitbit shame it doesn’t do rowing,will there be on in the future to help here.

Whenever I’m in a spin class my Alta HR doesn’t measure my heart rate accurately. It states that the maximum bpm is 110, this is clearly incorrect as I’m blowing out of my arse. I’m wearing it in the correct position so what would cause this?

Some cardio fitness tables band resting heart rate scores as above average for my age group (60-65) if my score is about 50, but my fitbit charge 2 says I am in the excellent range as my fitbit cardio fitness score is banded as “40 – 44). While it feels good to believe the fitbit score that my heart is excellent for a man of my age I clearly cannot also be ” average” on other cardio tables, even though i am using my fitbit average of 69 beats per minute average daily. This is confusing. Do I believe fitbit’s scale or do I believe the cardio conclusions of other tables. I.e. is fitbit giving a too rosy a view of one’s actual heart fitness.

The new Heart Rate app from Apple monitors your pulse on your Apple Watch (made after 2015 running WatchOS 4) and takes note when you appear to be “at rest” for “a while”. Once it appears you are not moving, a “resting heartbeat” is established. From this point on (until you get up, or move significantly) your heartbeat should remain at rest. If your resting heartbeat “jumps” above a threshold (configurable from 100 to 150 bpm) a standard alert is generated.

Is there a Fitbit product that can do this? I want a simple device I can wear that lets me know of a jump in resting heart rate — and assertively alerts me. The Apple Watch will do this, but doesn’t differentiate between a cardio alert and an alert that I have 500 free coins available on my slot machine game app.

Since 45 days I am noticing my resting heart rate is between 81 to 84. I do walk everyday around 15k steps, but its not going down.
First, is it normal or I need to contact doctor? Do you have any solution for that?
Thanks

My main interest is playing tennis at max capacity. I’m male, 75, 210 pounds, 5′ 11″, (handsome-sure!) and have a resting heart rate below 60. I’ve used the Charge HR but left it in a hotel room so bought a Versa. Problems with it relative to setup and such, which the fitbit company is working on, cause me to be returning it today. However, I’m sold on the concept of the Versa. My desire for what I want to get out of a Fitbit is mainly heart rate current, and get average, peak and resting at some or any point. Also, for biking, distance, speed, max speed and average speed. Waterproof would be nice too as i’m a sail boater and occasional swimmer (when my boat sinks!). I don’t care that much about calories but time display is nice. It gets complicated and a pain you-know-where when I need to use my cell phone for distance/speed type info that gps availability would give me.

My understanding is that the ‘smart’ fitbits have the set up problem so they’re off the table.